For the ACT rider, who finished 14th on the stage, and his Tinkoff-Saxo teammates, Majka’s win helped sooth the heartbreak of losing their Spanish leader Alberto Contador with a fractured tibia sustained in a crash in the 10th stage.

Asked for his emotion on hearing the race announcer at the finish call Majka’s win by 24s on second placed Italian Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), Rogers said: “Happiness, a smile. It was hard to smile. I was on the limit, but within [there was] certainly a smile.”

It was a great ending for Rogers and his team after getting two riders in the key 17-man breakaway – Majka and Irishman Nicolas Roche – and came close to having three in it with Rogers just being “two or three” metres shy of getting across.

The team’s overall hopes may be long gone in a Tour that Nibali continues to lead convincingly with 4m 37s on second placed Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and 4m 50s on Frenchman Romain Bardet (Ag2r).

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But as the Tour starts its third and final week, stage wins are on the agenda, said Rogers who made no secret of what joy Majka’s victory brought the team.

“We are obviously really ecstatic. It was a really gutsy ride out there by Majka to hold off the bunch coming from behind with Nibali and all the big [overall] contenders …," Rogers said.

“It was a really gutsy ride and it showed that he really has talent and that he has a big future. Its shows we have a strong team and we are all smiles absolutely …”

Rogers credited the Tinkoff-Saxo team management - headed by its Russian owner Oleg Tinkoff and manager Bjarne Riis - for not putting too much pressure on them to make up for the disappointment of losing Contador when no ‘Plan B’ existed.

“We only had ‘Plan A’. To turn around on a short time frame isn’t easy,” Rogers said.

“It took us a couple of days. We kept believing. Luckily we have some genius people in the team who didn’t pressure us.